MACCABEES, a name applied to a patriotic family whose achievements were most notable. Antiochus Epiphanes, a Syrian king, having been expelled from Egypt by the Romans, relieved his vex ation by attempting to put down the Jewish worship. Palestine then being under his sway, the aged Mathathias, priest of Modin, was urged to set his people the example of sacrificing to the Greek gods. In place of doing so, he killed the king's messenger, and escaped to the mountains, his sons being com panions of his flight. Their names were John called Caddis, Simon called Thassi, Judas called Maccabieus, in connection with whom the name Maccabees origi nated, Eleazar called Avaran, and Jona than called Apphus. The revolt began 168 B. C., and in 165 Judas took Jeru salem, and purified the Temple, in com memoration of which the winter festival called the Feast of Dedication was annu ally kept, and is alluded to in John x: 22. After achieving success, a Macca bean, called also an Asmonemn, dynasty reigned for about a century, Herod the Great, slaughterer of the infants of Bethlehem, putting to death Hyrcanus, the last scion of the house, though he was inoffensive, pious, and the high priest.
The books of Maccabees: Four books of our present Apocrypha, with a fifth not in that collection.
(1) Maccabees: A work giving an account of the Maccabean struggle, with a simplicity and candor which render its statements eminently credible. It
seems to have been written originally in Hebrew by a Palestinian Jew, probably a Sadducee. The Roman Church con siders it an inspired production; the Protestant, uninspired but of high his torical value.
(2) Maccabees: A much less valuable production than I Maccabees. It was compiled by a person whose name is not given, from a more extended narrative written by Jason of Cyrene. Jason's book seems to have been published about 160 B. C.
(3) Maccabees: A book narrating events earlier than the Maccabean times. It commences with Ptolemy IV. (Philo pator) 217 B. C. The author seems to have been an Alexandrian Jew, who wrote in Greek.
(4) Maccabees: A work written to encourage the Jews, who lived in the midst of a contemptuous heathen popu lation, to remain true to the Jewish faith. It contains the history of the Maccabean martyrdoms. It seems to have been written A. D. 39 or 40.
(5) Maccabees: This work embraced the history of 178 years, from Heliodo rus's attempt to plunder the treasury at Jerusalem, 184 B. C., to 6 B. C., when Herod was on the throne. There are many parallelisms with Josephus. It is a valuable historical production.